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• Low legal standard: Bar not solely responsible

We refer to the news report “More lawyers, but where’s the quality” which appeared in the NST on 28 June 2007.

As we had stated, the Bar Council is equally concerned about maintaining standards within the profession. While the Bar Council has taken steps to raise professional standards, it is important to point out that the arrest of any decline cannot be laid solely at the doorstep of the professional body. Educational institutions will also have to play their part and must share the responsibility for the present state of affairs that plagues not only the legal profession.

The Bar Council has through its dedicated committee now called the Professional Standards and Development Committee (PSDC), made professional development its priority. The Bar Council is running continuing legal development programmes in relation to the various practice areas. We have also drawn up a number of fresh initiatives to address the concern over declining standards. These include a new “Professional Standards” programme which will require mandatory attendance by all pupils before admission to the Bar, a “Continuing Legal Education Network”, which is a nation-wide professional development programme and a “Professional Development Bulletin” which will keep members informed of all matters relating to professional development.

The Malaysian Bar is not averse to criticism. Indeed, it welcomes constructive criticism as this provides an occasion for introspection and an opportunity to improve itself. However the Bar’s openness to criticism does not justify generalisations about lawyers particularly when we have many members of high calibre and integrity who also contribute to legal aid, take up public interest matters and do valuable human rights work.

Judicial Temperament

Just as it is useful to recognise and welcome constructive criticism, it is equally important to point out unfair criticisms, such as unwarranted remarks made against individual lawyers who conduct their cases before judicial officers. This is particularly so since a high legal professional standard cannot exist in the absence of a highly professional, fair and conducive environment in which judicial officers play a crucial role.

In dispensing justice, it is the role of a judicial officer to be impartial and to appear so. That is why judicial officers ought not to encroach into the lawyers’ arena of partisan argument or to make any unnecessary, intemperate or personal remarks about witnesses or lawyers appearing before them.

Indeed it is recognized that the ideal judicial temperament involves the exercise of judicial power with restraint, patience and respect for those appearing before them. Ultimately the judicial process will only work if the public has confidence that the lawyers whom they instruct are competent and the judicial officers who hear their cases display the right judicial temperament.

Dated 29 June 2007

Ambiga Sreenevasan
President
Malaysian Bar

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